SWIMMING

Men and Women's Swimming Start New Year with Tough Losses at Mars Hill Despite 11 Event Wins

January 15, 2011

MARS HILL, N.C. Ė Pfeiffer University jumped back in the pool for the first time in 2011 dropping a pair of close decisions at Mars Hill on Saturday afternoon. The men fell short 150-112 while the women ended up on the wrong side of 157-101. Both teams did combine for 11 event wins during the meet.

The individual day got started with a Samantha Maness win in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Maness out-touched her Mars Hill opponent by more than four seconds. On the menís side, Charlie Melesh notched the first victory of the day in the 200-yard freestyle winning by more than three seconds.

Kim Benton and Jillian Kniffen would score back-to-back first place swims in the 50 backstroke and 50 breaststroke in front of George Moreno went back-to-back on his own scoring wins in the 50 and 100 free.

Past the halfway point of the day, Haley Carter would notch her own individual win in the 100 breaststroke while Melesh claimed a more than 28 second win in the 500 free. Kniffen would secure the final solo win of the day in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:20.59.

Both the men and women registered relay wins in the 200 free to round out the afternoon. Carter, Benton, Shelby Carrion and Kniffen bested Mars Hill by .09 seconds while Patrick Porter, Moreno, Mark Franz and Edwin Torres did the same by just .02 seconds.

Both swim teams will be back in action on Friday getting a taste of division one action at Campbell. Gardner-Webb will also join in on the festivities at 4:00 p.m.